Devineni assures completion of Veligonda by next March

​Amaravati: Minister for Water Resources Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao said the first tunnel of Veligonda Project would be completed by December 2018 and second tunnel would be completed by March 2019.

Answering a question during the Question Hour in the State Assembly on Wednesday, he said that the government would shift 20 tmcft of Godavari water to Prakasam district after completion of the project.

He said that tenders were called for works for a stretch of 3.67 km for first tunnel at an estimated cost of Rs 248 crore and tenders were also called for works for 8.8 km for second tunnel at an estimated cost of Rs 605 crore. The State government identified 53 projects as important projects, he said and added that Veligonda project was one among them.

He said the government would complete the projects without budget limit. MLA Damacherla Janardhan said that nearly 30 mandals in Prakasam district are drought-hit mandals. He also said the completion of Veligonda Project was important to the district. He said the people of the district were facing hardships in getting drinking water.

MLA David Raju asked the government to complete Veligonda Project as early as possible. He said the people were reminding the legislators about the assurance given by the Telugu Desam towards completion of Veligonda Project during the last Assembly elections.